Many other great features like source control support (text-based assets), realtime shadows and NavMeshes are now mostly available in free versions. Text based assets is the biggest helper when working with teams that use Unity Basic for assets or shared repos for basic/pro versions.

New platforms

Unity 4.2 comes with three new platforms: Windows Phone 8, Windows Store apps and BlackBerry 10. That’s right, we’ve doubled the number of mobile platforms Unity supports! Now it’s up to you guys to create new games and port existing titles to these platforms so even more people can benefit from your creative talents.

In Unity 4.2, all users of the free version of Unity can publish to any mobile platform they wish, be it Windows Phone 8, Windows Store, iOS, Android or BlackBerry 10 without it costing a dime. In addition, Unity Pro users can use the Windows Store Pro deployment option (which includes the Windows Phone 8 and Windows Store apps platforms) absolutely free of charge.

I like the moves to free for all mobile platforms for basic and the Windows Phone and Apps Pro upgrades for free for Unity Pro users (Blackberry 10 Pro upgrade still is $1500). I was hoping over time the Asset Store and a lower subscription would emerge and the ecosystem would grow. The Windows addition for free is great for Microsoft’s platforms growing like iOS and Android did as Unity is a big push on game content to those stores/markets.

Note that the official Android version does not support ES3 yet. So to test it you should install ES3 drivers directly from the GPU makers (e.g. Qualcomm).Platform switching, player building and asset importing can now be cancelled! How cool is that?

Platform Switching

Platform switching, player building and asset importing can now be cancelled! How cool is that?

*drawlogic is authored by Ryan Christensen of *drawlabs and *drawcode, both dedicated to taking ideas to ship doing entertainment focused web, mobile and desktop game and interactive development projects.